Facing The Consequences
by MyraValhallah
Summary: Sequel to 'Things Which Begin With The Letter E' Roughly a year after eloping to Underland with Tarrant Mr and Mrs Hightopp have to face up to the consequences when they visit the in laws. Rated for safety.
1. Facing The Consequences

_**A massive thank you to every one who read, reviewed and favourited 'Things Which Begin With The Letter E'**_

_**It's been about a year since Tarrant and Alice eloped so I was considering what might happen if you take a heavily pregnant Champion back to her childhood home so she can introduce you to her mother?**_

_**Enjoy...**_

* * *

Tarrant Hightopp looked at his wife (how he loved being able to call her that) as she sat looking out of the window. She looked stunning! She looked perfect! She looked… sad.

"Cricket?" he asked laying his hand on her shoulder. "Have you any idea why a raven is like a writing desk?"

'_No you ninny_' one of the voices scolded him. '_That's not the question you wanted to ask!_'

"I still haven't the foggiest idea" she told him, leaning into the warmth of the hand he'd laid on her soft cheek

"What I meant to ask" he admitted. "Was; what is the matter? You don't seem yourself today- not that you could be anyone other than absolutely Alice, and we know that you are because no other Alice is carrying my baby in her belly because let's face it…"

"Tarrant"

"Heart…" he choked out. "I'm fine love, thank you"

Alice smiled at him fondly but said nothing.

"Tell me what the hatter is" he entreated, stroking her cheek softly with his thumb. "I don't like seeing you upset"

"I know love" she nodded. "I'm sorry- it's just that I haven't seen my mother and Margaret since you brought me home."

"You miss them" he summed up.

One of the many things Alice loved about her husband was that- despite the obvious bouts of madness- he was always so in tune with her.

"I'd love to go and show you off to them." Alice told him, pressing a kiss to his lips.

"Would they approve of us?" he asked nervously

"I doubt it somehow" she replied. "But it's a bit late to be worrying about that- they can't do anything to us can they?"

Tarrant pulled her in for a kiss. "I love you Alice Hightopp"

He giggled when the third member of their clan announced their distaste at being ignored in such a way.

"Yes wee one I love you too" he murmured affectionately stooping to kiss the prominent bump that was his son or daughter. "Not too long until we meet now is it?"

Alice smiled down at her husband with tears in her eyes. Since she'd first got the morning sickness eight months ago she'd known in her heart that he'd be a wonderful father. He treated the baby like it was already born: talking to it, singing it songs and telling stories, kissing and stroking her bump.

"We'd have to wait until the baby's born" Alice mused. "The Jabberwocky blood could hurt it"

"Who said anything about to Jabberwocky blood darling?" he asked, genuinely curious. "And as to waiting- why, we could go right now… in fact- I have reason to believe that you yourself have travelled by looking glass before"

"You mean for us to travel by Looking glass?" she frowned

"Of course" Tarrant grinned happily. "I mean it isn't the absolute best way to travel; but it is a perfectly acceptable means of getting from A to B"

"Can we go?" she asked excitedly.

Tarrant just grinned and pulled her to her feet.

* * *

"Is that the right room?" a disembodied male voice asked from inside the living room

A second, familiar, bodiless, female voice replied. "Yes, this is the right place"

Helen Kingsleigh, who had just reached the bottom of the stairs outside the living room; shook her head. The shock of Alice's sudden disappearance on her wedding day must have affected her more than she'd assumed.

"Mother?" Alice's voice called. "Mother, it's Alice! Are you home?"

"I don't think this can be the right place Cricket" the man's voice announced. "This place is boring- not an Alice place at all"

"I know; that's why I don't live here anymore; but I need to see my mother"

Just to check that she wasn't in fact mad, Helen peeked around the door. Her jaw dropped at the sight before her. A heavily pregnant Alice stood in the arms of a tall gentle man who had the most outlandish appearance. From his scorched top hat to mismatched socks which poked out between the too short trouser legs and brown shoes- there was nothing that struck the dowager as suitable for her little dreamer.

"Alice?" Helen announced her presence just as the man was lowering his head to kiss her daughter.

The two of them snapped apart but much to Helen's ire Alice's hand remained firmly entwined with the man's.

"Mother" the younger woman smiled sheepishly, her free hand- the left one- resting on her belly; Helen was dismayed at the sight of the two bands on her younger daughter's ring finger. "I'd like you to meet my husband…"

"Tarrant Hightopp madam" the man introduced himself with a frankly childish politeness. "I'm sorry about stealing Alice away so suddenly but she's my Alice and I needed her more than that Lord fellow you were trying to marry her off to…"

Helen didn't like the way his voice was changing as his words sped up. She was about to pull her daughter away from the obviously deranged man but Alice, being Alice merely slipped her hand out of the larger, paler, work ravaged one and placed her hands gently on his white cheeks, forcing him to look at her.

"Thank you Cricket" the man squeaked. "I'm sorry about that, love."

"Alice dear" Helen looked at her daughter, feeling faint. "Please tell me what's going on"

"Of course mother" Alice nodded. "But first I think Tarrant might be somewhat put out if I remain on my feet for too much longer"

* * *

Tarrant glowered at his mother in law who sat close to his wife, from the seat he'd been allocated about as far away from her as it was possible for him to be.

Alice was filling her mother in on all of her adventures- said mother was looking at her incredulously. '_How dare she?_' the mad Hatter almost growled. '_How dare she not believe my Alice? My Cricket never tells lies!_'

"The wedding was beautiful mother" Alice smiled over at him; her smile always cheered him up. "We were married by the White Queen herself; everyone was dressed in white and blue and there were so many roses and lilies. Tarrant surprised me by writing his own vows too."

"Sweetheart" His Mother in Law sighed. "What I still don't understand is why you left Martin without a word for…" she looked over at Tarrant. "This."

"Why did you marry father?" Alice asked. "You loved him, as I love Tarrant- I'd have thought that it was fairly obvious considering… Oh!"

"Alice?" Tarrant started forwards- he didn't like the stricken look on his wife's lovely face. "What's wrong Cricket?"

Alice gritted her teeth. "I have a sneaking suspicion that my water has broken"

Alice's mother gasped but Tarrant asked.

"Water? You haven't… Oh! I know this" He turned to his mother in law. "Mrs Kingsleigh, would you please be so kind as to direct me to a room where I can take my wife? I would take her home but travelling would be less than helpful in her current state you know; that isnae teh say tha' ye yersel' wouldnae ken 'ow to 'elp yer own bairn deliver her own first bairn and…"

"Tarrant!" Alice groaned

"I'm fine" he assured her, scooping her up. "Please Madam"

"My old room" Alice winced, before her mother could protest. "Up the stairs and the first door on the left"

"Right" Tarrant nodded and, with his focus entirely on the woman in his arms, he strode from the room, ignoring his mother in law's protests.

* * *

**_I'm torn, what do you think- should Helen come to accept Tarrant or just tollerate him as the father of her grandchild?_**

**_Let me know what you think so far and I'll post the next chapter as soon as its written._**

**_Fairfarren all_**

**_MyraValhallah  
_**


	2. Doctor Liddell

_**Thank you to all of you who, read reviewed, alerted and favourited this story- have a nice long chapter as a token of my gratitude :)**_

_**I would like to take the opportunity to appologize to anyone who got an update for this story and got a repeat of the first chapter. I don't know what happened- sorry.  
**_

* * *

Helen Kingsleigh was fighting off a headache. Her head was swimming with the three issues at hand…

_Alice had come back._

_Alice had come back with a husband._

_Alice had come back with a husband and… and was currently in labour in her old bedroom- with said husband sticking by her side despite the impropriety of it all. The father's place at a time like this was outside the room, worrying and pacing._

A summons had been sent out for a doctor and Helen was the one pacing outside her daughter's bedroom.

She didn't know what to make of Mr Hightopp- on the one hand he was most probably certifiable. He was about as far away from the kind of man that Helen would have picked for her daughter as it were possible to be. The crux of the matter was; not that Helen would ever admit to it; that she knew absolutely nothing about this lunatic who her baby girl had consented to.

The other side of the argument was that Alice accepted him. Alice wasn't a naïve little girl anymore; she would not allow herself to be taken advantage of. She wouldn't have married the fellow if she didn't love him.

"Madame" Rachel, one of the household maids curtsied. "Mr and Mrs Manchester are here to see you"

Helen repressed a groan. '_Why today?_'

"Thank you Rachel, show them to the sitting room please; tell them that I will be with them shortly."

"Yes madam" Rachel curtsied once again before descending the stairs

Helen slipped into Alice's old bedroom. Mr Hightopp was holding her close talking to her in hushed tones and wiping the sweat away from her brow.

"There's no sign of the doctor yet" she announced.

"Nae sign o' teh wee one yet either" Mr Hightopp replied curtly, wincing as Alice cried out right next to the poor man's ear.

"I ken it hurts Cricket" Mr Hightopp returned his attention to his wife.

"If we were at home right now Tarrant I'd have been given a calming draft by now!" Alice cried. "And this little… would probably be out of me!"

"I have to go downstairs dear" Helen told Alice. "Your sister and Lowell are here, but I'll have the doctor sent up as soon as he arrives."

Alice merely nodded as another contraction hit.

"Thank you Mrs Kingsleigh" Mr Hightopp winced as Alice clenched his hand in a death grip. "I just hope that the fellow shows up soon."

* * *

Thankfully the doctor arrived just as Helen was reaching the bottom of the stairs. Doctor Thomas Liddell was a respectable aging gentleman who had helped to deliver both Margaret and Alice; and treated them throughout all of their lives- Helen found it somewhat fitting that he was assisting in the delivery of Alice's child; despite her qualms about the father.

"Thank you for coming" Helen smiled tiredly. "You know where her room is"

"I must confess" Doctor Liddell admitted. "That I am finding it hard to believe that young Alice is the one who is giving you your first grandchild"

Helen understood this- Doctor Liddell had known Alice for her whole life, he knew what the young woman was like.

"How do you think I feel Doctor?" the flustered Gentlewoman replied, smoothing her greying hair. "You remember the scandal she caused when she ran off last year- I thought I might die of shame. Now she turns up, heavily pregnant with a Husband who looks and acts certifiable."

"Never let it be said that your husband wasn't without an outrageous idea or two of his own Helen" Doctor Liddell advised. "It has always been obvious that Alice is her father's daughter. Now; you and I shall talk more at a more suitable time- right now I have a baby to deliver."

Doctor Liddell had never seen such an attentive father to be as the peculiar red haired fellow who sat with young Alice. He was wiping the sweat from her face and stroking her hair. Most fathers to be that he'd come across stood back when their wives went into labour and allowed the women folk to handle the delivery.

"Well, well" Doctor Liddell addressed Alice. "Young Alice Kingsleigh- what have you been doing to yourself?"

"Tis Alice Hightopp naw" the father burred in a deep Scottish brogue. "Are yeh teh Doctor?"

"I am." He nodded. "And unfortunately for you sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step outside while I deliver the child"

"Buh…?" Mr Hightopp began to protest

"Hatter" Alice snapped. "I know that at home the father is with the mother through delivery but you have to do as Doctor Liddell says- it's just the way this is done here, love"

"Alright" an English accent came out of Mr Hightopp's mouth. "I'm not happy about it though cricket"

"You may come back when my job is finished sir" Doctor Liddell informed Mr Hightopp. "I brought your wife into the world so I'm sure you can trust me with your child"

Mr Hightopp nodded curtly and moved towards the door. "I love yeh Alice"

"Love you too Tarrant" she replied through gritted teeth and closed eyes.

* * *

'_Bloody Londonlanders_' Tarrant thought, pacing the corridor like a caged Bandersnatch. '_Makin' mah Alice go through childbirth withou' meh- I wehs there all teh way through an' mah place is by mah wife's side_'

He didn't like hearing his wife cry out like that- he felt helpless not being able to go and help her. His beautiful Alice.

* * *

Down in the sitting room Helen sat with Margaret and Lowell.

"What is that caterwauling?" Lowell asked glaring at the ceiling

"It's… Alice" Helen sighed. She wasn't particularly fond of the son in law that she approved of. "She came back earlier today"

"Alice? Where has she been?" Margaret caught her mother's hands. "What's wrong with her? She sounds as though she's in great pain"

Helen sighed again, wondering how to answer her older daughter's questions when she didn't know all of the answers herself. "Well, I trust you remember that she vanished on what was to be her wedding day to Lord Kensington…?"

"Damned scandalous if you ask me" Lowell muttered

Helen ignored him. "Well apparently she ran off with a man who was… more to her tastes shall we say. The sounds above us are the sounds of your first niece or Nephew entering the world"

"Outside of wedlock?" Margaret clapped her hands to her cheeks, the scandal of it all- her flighty little sister had returned to bring a bastard child into the family

"Have you such little faith in her?" Helen glared at her. She might not wholly approve of Mr Hightopp but he was family whether she liked it or not. "When I said your sister ran away I suppose a better word would have been… eloped- the man in question goes by the name of Hightopp."

On hearing the 'E' word Margaret's whole demeanour changed as her repressed inner romantic broke out.

"They eloped?" the eldest Kinglseigh daughter was practically swooning. "How truly romantic"

* * *

Doctor Liddell was amazed. What looked to be a very long child birth suddenly became a very short one. As soon as the top of the babe's head came into view Alice suddenly began screaming. Not twenty minutes later the tiny baby came into the world. Now Doctor Liddell had seen a lot of babies born over his years in medicine but never one born that quickly.

The Doctor cut the umbilical cord severing the child from its mother. He quickly cleaned it and wrapped it in a conveniently located blanket.

"It's a girl" he announced laying the child in her mother's waiting arms and went to let the father in.

* * *

Tarrant had only once before seen such a beautiful sight as the one that he beheld when he entered his wife's room- that was on their wedding night when he'd seen her for the first time lying waiting for him clad in naught but a petticoat and the hat he'd made for her.

"Hello" she smiled tiredly, bringing him back to the present.

She was reclined against the pillows cradling a white blanket to her breast.

"Hello" he replied, not really sure of what else to say

"There's someone else who you might like to say hello to" here she looked at the bundle in her arms.

"Our child" he murmured taking a shaky step forwards

"Our Izabella" Alice nodded- they'd decided on Izabella for a girl- spelt with a Z because Tarrant insisted that his daughter would be both beautiful and unique with Jasmine as her middle name in honour of the tea they'd been drinking on the day Alice's pregnancy was discovered; should they have a son they would have named him Benjamin in honour of Tarrant's father and Charles as his middle name after Alice's.

Tarrant sat on the edge of the bed and Alice moved the baby away from her chest.

"She's sew wee and bonnie" he burred as his daughter was placed in his arms; tentatively he stroked her soft warm brow- her eyebrows were red gold, as was the tuft of hair which poked out from the makeshift hood of the blanket. "Hello mah wee Izabella"

The baby yawned and her large eyes drifted open. Her irises were a healthy spring green.

"Why aren't her eyes blue?" Alice asked sleepily

Tarrant giggled at his wife's silliness. "Honestly cricket- why ever would her eyes be blue; she's a new born?"

"I was brought up to believe that all new born babies had blue eyes" Alice yawned

"Nae love" he paused to kiss their daughter's brow. "Bairns are born wi' green eyes- like spring time. Sleep naw love- I'll watch after ye; mah two angels"

* * *

_**Now it hasn't escaped my notice that I haven't given you a story about Alice and Tarrant's wedding- my reason for this is that my idea contains lemons; something which I struggle to write; how many of you lovely readers would like me to attempt to do my idea justice?**_

_**Let me know what you think of the chapter and my question and I'll be back before you know it**_

_**Fairfarren All**_

_**MyraValhallah**_


	3. Izabella Jasmine Hightopp

**_Here we go my dears- Chapter three_**

**_Thanks to all of you who've reveiwed the last chapter_**

**_And now without further ado

* * *

_**Doctor Liddell washed his hands and returned to the room which held the young family. Alice lay sleeping and her husband sat on the edge of the bed cradling their daughter in his arms.

"Hello Doctor" Mr Hightopp's English accent had returned. "Have you come to check on my Izabella?"

"Isabella? A beautiful name; my own eldest's name"

"No it isn't" Mr Hightopp smiled, almost sounding as if he were addressing a rather dim witted child as opposed to a well-respected physician. "Because Izabella is spelled with a 'Z' and her middle name is Jasmine"

"Izabella Jasmine Hightopp?"

"That's right" Mr Hightopp nodded, a proud smile on his pale face, looking back at his daughter. He began to sing softly in what the good doctor assumed was Scottish.

* * *

Alice awoke to the sound of her husband, singing softly- an outlandish lullaby. Tarrant had sung it to her more than once since their marriage.

In her sleep addled state she wondered who he was singing to. Then it hit her- she was a mother.

"Tarrant?" she murmured.

"Shh Cricket" Tarrant whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Izabella has just gone to sleep love."

Their daughter was fast asleep in her father's arms.

"She's so tiny and perfect" Alice sighed as her husband laid Izabella in her arms. "I almost can't believe that this time yesterday she was still in my womb"

"Please don't believe that this is a dream" Tarrant implored her. "Because I very much like having Izabella in our lives and I should be very upset if this were all just a figment of your imagination"

"Me too" she smiled up at him. "I know it must be real because I am too sore for this to be anything less than reality; and if it were a dream we'd be home in Witzend- not here in my mother's home."

"Speaking of your mother" Tarrant put in. "I think she might like to meet little Izzie"

"Izzie?"

"Do you not think Izzie is an adorable pet name for her?" Tarrant asked; sounding a little put out- he already knew that their daughter would always be his little Izzie no matter how much she grew up. He'd even told her as much- to change that now would confuse the poor lamb.

"Bella is more common" Alice replied.

"Aye" Tarrant nodded, he knew that. "Tisnae as adorable as Izzie though"

Alice laughed quietly. "Yes love, Izzie is an adorable pet name; and I think my mother might very much like to meet her little Granddaughter"

* * *

Helen Kingsleigh put her hand on her heart. She was loath to admit it but although Alice and Tarrant did not make one of the most handsome couples; the sight of them together, with the baby… their baby, was adorable.

Doctor Liddell had announced the arrival of the birth of the little girl- Izabella Jasmine apparently on his way to the door on his way out; and Helen had simply had to go up to see her little girl, which is how she came to be peeking around the door, like some common eaves' dropper.

Taking a breath, Helen knocked quietly.

Mr Hightopp appeared in the now open doorway, he beamed at her. "Ah Mrs Kingsleigh"

"Helen please" Helen corrected- she might not fully approve of the man but he had sired her granddaughter and won her youngest daughter's heart. "I insist"

"Then you must call me Tarrant madam" Mr Hightopp insisted, taking the hand she proffered and kissing it genteelly. Despite herself, Helen smiled approvingly. Her son in law (better get used to that) certainly was a gentleman despite his outlandish appearance.

"Mother" Alice smiled over from the bed. "Come and say hello"

Izabella was quite frankly adorable. Her little mouth was the same red as her father's but the shade was less noticeable because her skin tone was closer to Alice's. Just as Helen was about to remark on just how quiet Izabella was; the baby screwed up her little face and started whimpering.

"Hush now Izzie" Alice cooed, sounding as though she had been a mother her entire life. "Tea will be served in just a minute"

Cradling the baby in one arm Alice clumsily undid the top buttons of the night dress that she had changed into before Izabella had been born.

Helen instantly turned to Tarrant and asked. "Izzie?"

"A pet name" Tarrant replied with a proud smile.

"I'm decent mother" Alice informed her.

Helen turned hesitantly and was relieved to see her daughter had hidden the now nursing baby and her breast under a shawl which she had draped around her shoulders.

"Are Margaret and Lowell still here Mother?" she asked, not taking her gaze from her own daughter. "I'd like them to meet Tarrant and Izzie?"

"No" Helen sighed. "You scared Lowell off with your screaming and you know what Margaret is like with that man of hers"

Alice laughed, disturbing poor Izzie who started crying the very moment the supply of food was cut off. "Oh mama's sorry mah wee pet"

"Ah luv it when yeh talk Outlandish, Cricket" Tarrant burred

"Mr Hightopp!" Helen was shocked by her son in law's implication. "That is hardly appropriate!"

"She's mah wife" he countered. "An' we've been on our bess behaviour fer months I miss 'er"

"Tarrant" Alice laughed, still holding Izzie to her chest. "You'll give my mother a heart attack talking like that. We'll have to wait until we get home love."

Helen Kingsleigh very nearly did have a heart attack.

* * *

One week later the Hightopp clan were back in Witzend. Little Izzie had been getting a nigh incessant stream of visitors and Tarrant was getting more than a little frustrated.

He'd been on his best behaviour since Alice was five months pregnant and now that Izzie had been born the less well to do side of him was crying out for satisfaction.

Mirana had been visiting, again- Tarrant didn't want to seem rude to his sovereign but as he sat beside his wife; Izzie was lying on a blanket on the floor, quite happy to stare at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen, the Mad Hatter gave in to temptation.

He wrapped his arm around Alice's shoulder. She leaned in and he pressed his lips to the soft tender skin on her beautiful white neck. She inhaled sharply.

"Tarrant" She squeaked "We have company"

"That's quite alright Alice" Mirana giggled as she rose fluidly; earning herself a new hat in the not-quite-so-immediate but still very near future. "I understand- I shall see you tomorrow for tea"

After Mirana had let herself out Tarrant purred in his sweet wife's ear. "I'll put Izzie dewn fer 'er nap Lad then I'll beh bahk fer _ye_ Cricket"

Alice giggled, a pretty blush colouring her cheeks. "Now who's being naughty, my Hatter"

In what seemed like both a blink of an eye and an eternity to Tarrant; Izzie was settled in the cradle in her nursery and he had carried his Alice over the threshold of their room kicking the door shut with one foot.

* * *

**_And that's the end of it :)_**

**_I think Tarrant was getting a bit cheeky at the end of this chaper- naughty boy ;)_**

**_Hope you liked this story- I had a lot of fun writing it. The series will continue with the very originally entitled... 'Something Borrowed, Something blue'_**

**_Let me know what you thought.  
_**

**_Fairfarren all_**

**_MyraValhallah  
_**


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